Bee’s flagship product is a $49.99 wristband, resembling a minimalist smartwatch, equipped with microphones and generative AI that can listen to conversations, generate summaries, create to-do lists, and offer real-time reminders—positioning it as a next-generation personal assistant.
The announcement was made by Bee CEO Maria de Lourdes Zollo via LinkedIn on Tuesday. “When we started Bee, we imagined a world where AI is truly personal, where your life is understood and enhanced by technology that learns with you,” she wrote. “What began as a dream with an incredible team and community now finds a new home at Amazon.”
While Amazon declined to disclose financial terms, spokesperson Alexandra Miller confirmed the acquisition and highlighted the strategic alignment with the company’s expanding AI portfolio.
The deal adds to Amazon’s growing list of AI-driven initiatives, including its proprietary Nova large language models, Trainium AI chips, a shopping-focused chatbot, and Bedrock, a marketplace for third-party AI models. The company has also recently rolled out a revamped Alexa assistant, rebuilt with generative AI capabilities, as it seeks to stay competitive against platforms like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Anthropic’s Claude, and Google’s Gemini.
The move also marks Amazon’s return to the wearables space after discontinuing its health-focused Halo device in 2023 during cost-cutting efforts. With Bee, Amazon appears to be betting again on the fusion of hardware and AI—this time with a clearer focus on ambient computing and context-aware personal assistants.
Bee’s acquisition comes amid a wave of interest in AI-infused consumer gadgets. Devices like the Rabbit R1, Humane’s AI Pin (recently sold to HP), and Meta’s Ray-Ban smart glasses are attempting to reshape human-device interaction beyond screens and keyboards. Meanwhile, OpenAI’s acquisition of Jony Ive’s startup io for a reported $6.4 billion underscores the growing competition in building AI-native hardware.
With Bee’s technology and talent now part of its ecosystem, Amazon is signaling that wearables may once again become a cornerstone of its long-term vision—this time, as part of a more personal and context-aware AI experience.